Julia Davis
In Their Own Words How Russian Propagandists Reveal Putin’s Intentions With a foreword by Timothy Snyder
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The book series “Ukrainian Voices” publishes English- and German-language monographs, edited volumes, document collections, and anthologies of articles authored and composed by Ukrainian politicians, intellectuals, activists, officials, researchers, and diplomats. The series’ aim is to introduce Western and other audiences to Ukrainian explorations, deliberations and interpretations of historic and current, domestic, and international affairs. The purpose of these books is to make non-Ukrainian readers familiar with how some prominent Ukrainians approach, view and assess their country’s development and position in the world. The series was founded, and the volumes are collected by Andreas Umland, Dr. phil. (FU Berlin), Ph. D. (Cambridge), Associate Professor of Politics at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and an Analyst in the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
Julia Davis
IN THEIR OWN WORDS How Russian Propagandists Reveal Putin’s Intentions With a foreword by Timothy Snyder
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Contents Foreword by Timothy Snyder .............................................................. 13 Preface ................................................................................................... 17 Russians Praise Trump, Taunt Zelensky, as Ukraine Signs On to Peace-Plan Proposal ............................................................................ 19 Russia’s State TV Calls Trump Their ‘Agent’ .................................. 23 Did Russian Prime Minister Medvedev Drop a Grim Hint About Putin’s Latest Power Grab? .................................................... 27 This Is the Real Goal of Putin’s Propaganda Machine ................... 31 Can Trump’s Art of the Arms Deal Get More Stupid? The Russians Are Loving It........................................................................ 39 ‘America’s Dying’: Russian Media Is Giddy at Chaos in the USA........................................................................................................ 45 Russian Media Is Rooting for Civil War in America: ‘The Worse, the Better’ .............................................................................................. 49 Russian State Media Roots for Violence as America Counts Its Votes ...................................................................................................... 53 Russian Media Is Angry and Desperate Over Biden Win.............. 57 Russian Media Wants Moscow to Grant Asylum to Trump ......... 61 Russian Media Mourn as Putin Acknowledges Biden’s Win: But Say Trump ‘Burned’ U.S. on His Way Out ...................................... 65 Putin Gleeful After Trumpsters’ Violent Insurrection ................... 69 Russian Media: ‘Traitors’ Like Alexei Navalny Deserve Death .... 73 Russian Media Pushes the Lie That Capitol Rioters Were Antifa..................................................................................................... 77 Top Kremlin Mouthpiece Warns of ‘Inevitable’ War With U.S. Over Another Ukraine Land Grab .................................................... 81
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Russian State Media Gears Up for a War ‘Against the West’ ........ 85 How Putin Made a Fool of Tucker Carlson ..................................... 89 Russia Targets Fox News Fans in Bid to Become the World’s Anti-Woke Capital............................................................................... 93 State TV Host Mocks Black January 6 Cop in ‘N-Word’ Fueled Rant........................................................................................................ 97 Russia Is ‘Enjoying’ America's Failure— and Cozying Up to the Taliban .......................................................................................... 101 The Russian Public Is Being Primed for Another of Putin’s Wars..................................................................................................... 107 Russian State TV Drops Deranged Love Letter to Its Darling ‘Trumpushka’ ..................................................................................... 111 Russian Citizens Are Now Being Prepped for Nuclear War ....... 115 How Tucker Carlson Is Boosting Russia’s New Propaganda War ................................................................................ 119 Trump’s Mega-Fans in Moscow Declare They’re ‘Ready to Elect Him Again’ ............................................................................... 123 Welcome to the Fantasy World Where Putin Already ‘Won This Round’ ........................................................................................ 127 Russian State TV Is So Ridiculous Right Now It Looks Like a Farce .................................................................................................... 131 Kremlin TV Asks ‘Where’s the Champagne?’ as Ukraine’s Kids Are Prepped for War ......................................................................... 135 Putin’s Own Minions Are Exposing Him for the Liar He Is ....... 139 Sanctioned Russian TV Host Cries About Losing His Italian Villa ..................................................................................................... 143 Kremlin TV Tells Ukraine to Listen to Fox News Guest and Kneel to Putin ..................................................................................... 147 Russian State TV Just Blew Up Putin’s ‘Nazi Ukraine’ BS........... 151
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Even Russian State TV Is Pleading With Putin to Stop the War ................................................................................................ 155 Wild Kremlin TV Hosts Threaten the U.S. With Nuclear Strikes Unless Sanctions End and Reparations Are Paid .......................... 159 Kremlin TV Descends Into Screaming Match Over Putin’s War Failures ................................................................................................ 163 Putin’s Minions Demand Grotesque ‘Rewards’ for Mass Killers in Ukraine ........................................................................................... 167 Russia Airs Its Ultimate ‘Revenge Plan’ for America ................... 171 Putin’s Stooges: He May Nuke Us All but We Are Ready to Die ................................................................................................... 175 Putin’s Puppets Admit Their Army Has Been a Total Embarrassment .................................................................................. 179 Kremlin TV Betrays Darling Trump in Crazed Defense of Putin’s War ......................................................................................... 183 Kremlin TV Names the Country Putin Will Invade Next ............ 187 Putin’s Lap Dog Humiliated by Fed-Up Guest on His Own Show .................................................................................................... 191 Team Putin Dishes on the Moment They Could Win It All......... 195 You’ll Never Guess the Lie Putin Has Come Up With Now ....... 199 Putin’s Lies Have Kremlin TV Flailing and Fighting On-Air ...... 203 Kremlin TV Says if Putin Ran For U.S. President, He’d Win— and Trump Would Be His Veep ...................................................... 207 Putin’s Pals Furious Younger Russians Don’t Want to Die in Ukraine................................................................................................ 211 Russia’s Panicked Confession: This Is What Scares Us Most ...... 215 Kremlin TV Desperately Wants You to Move to Russia Right Now ..................................................................................................... 219
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Putin Cronies Threaten ‘Hundreds’ of American Coffins on Live TV ................................................................................................ 223 Team Putin Admits Their Worst Case Scenario Is Coming True ..................................................................................................... 227 Team Putin Threatens Maniacal Response to Bitter War Losses .................................................................................................. 231 Putin Crony Belts Out Song in Cringey Push for More Russian Troops ................................................................................................. 235 Team Putin Begs Rich Russians to Help Save His Failing War... 239 Russia Desperately Tries to Sell Its Ukraine War Draft as Citizens Flee ....................................................................................... 243 Putin Crony Says He Drafted Russian ‘Kill List’ of Western Officials ............................................................................................... 247 Team Putin Wakes Up We Never Should’ve Laughed at Ukraine................................................................................................ 251 Kremlin TV Exposes the Real Goal of Putin’s ‘RevengeBombs’ ................................................................................................. 255 Top Putin Lackey Urges Russians to Choose Violent Death Over War Defeat ................................................................................ 259 Putin’s Top TV Puppet Threatens 7 Countries With Air Strikes After Poland Blast .............................................................................. 263 Kremlin TV Stars Combust as Russians Admit War Is Aimless................................................................................................ 267 Putin’s Cronies Turn on Russian Elite in Paranoid War Frenzy.................................................................................................. 271 Russians Fear They’ll Soon Be Starving ‘Like North Koreans’ ... 275 Putin’s Henchmen Threaten ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Dead U.S. Troops ................................................................................................. 279 Putin’s No. 1 Cheerleader Rips into Russia’s War Failures ......... 283
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Gloom Envelops Putin’s TV Propagandists ................................... 287 ‘Morality Shouldn’t Get in the Way’—Russia’s Genocidal State Media................................................................................................... 291 Team Putin Melts Down Over International Arrest Warrant ..... 297 God’s Propagandists ......................................................................... 301 Russia Laments the Loss of Tucker Carlson .................................. 305 Married Putin Stooge Accused of Hiding Kids With Secret American Lover ................................................................................. 309 Team Putin Spars Over Baffling Russian ‘Victory Plan’ in War .................................................................................................. 311 Russian State TV Anchors Aghast That Putin Didn’t Kill Prigozhin............................................................................................. 315 The Kremlin Has a Batshit New PR Position: There Was No Armed Mutiny ................................................................................... 319 Kremlin News Stars Unravel in Post-Mutiny Television Fiasco ................................................................................................... 323 Top Putin Crony Curses Audience and Berates Colleague On-Air ................................................................................................. 325 Kremlin Flacks Tease Next ‘Global’ Targets of Putin’s Wrath .... 329 Putin Stooge Loses It When Confronted About Prigozhin’s Death ................................................................................................... 333 Who Assassinated Prigozhin? Duh, the English ........................... 337 ‘Woe to My Enemies’ Rages Russia’s Mouthpiece-in-Chief ........ 341 Russia Lauds North Korea’s ‘Square-Headed Dude’ and His Pauper Legions .................................................................................. 345 Putin’s Pals Brag: Elon Musk ‘Really Is Our Agent!’ .................... 349 ‘Only Good News Today’— Russia’s Propagandists Delight as Israelis Die .......................................................................................... 353 Russians Divide Over Terrorist Attack on Israel .......................... 357 9
Putin Flack Claims ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of Jews on Kremlin TV ... 361 Israel Conflict Rekindles Russian Antisemitism ........................... 365 Women Enter the Putin Regime’s Crosshairs ................................ 369 Give the Kremlin an Inch and it Will Take Half of Europe ......... 373 Reality Check for Putin as Russians Get Damn Tired of War ..... 377 Putin’s Pals Think the GOP Just Won Them the War in Ukraine................................................................................................ 381 ‘Shocking’ Reality of Ukraine Blowback Hammers Putin at Home ................................................................................................... 385 Putin’s Sham Election Rivals Can’t Even Keep a Straight Face .. 389 Kremlin Cronies: Putin-Tucker Interview Will ‘Blow Up’ U.S. Election................................................................................................ 393 Putin Nearly Bores Tucker Carlson to Death With Two-Hour History Lesson ................................................................................... 397 Tucker Carlson Misses the Bullseye ................................................ 403 Putin Says He Was Not Impressed by Tucker Carlson ................ 407 Putin’s Pals Link Death of Alexei Navalny to Tucker Carlson Interview ............................................................................................. 411 Putin Plants ‘Info-Bombs’ ................................................................. 415 Russia Issues Chilling Warnings to Navalny’s Widow ................ 419 Putin Inc. Fears Navalny Even Beyond the Grave ........................ 423 Trump is ‘Unhinged’ But We Love Him, Say Kremlin Mouthpieces ....................................................................................... 427 Putin’s Friends Celebrate Re-Election With Photos of Mass Hanging .............................................................................................. 431 Moscow Terror Attack: A Lie Too Good to Waste ........................ 435 Kremlin Glee as US Dithers on Lifesaving Ukraine Aid .............. 439
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Whiplash as Russia Toasts Derided Marjorie Taylor Greene as Their Top New Hero ......................................................................... 443 Putin’s Propagandists Rage Against the Republican ‘Betrayal’ .. 447 Afterword ........................................................................................... 451
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“Julia Davis’s work has long been obligatory reading for anyone who seeks to understand Russia. Her new book now provides a chronological account of how the Kremlin’s most popular propagandists shaped the agenda and prepared the Russian population to accept the liquidation of their own opposition, the invasion of Ukraine, and the genocide of Ukrainians.” —Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag: A History and Red Famine
“This collection of articles provides analysis of Russia’s domestic and international propaganda, with an unmistakable trend. Statecontrolled propagandists cultivate popular opinion well in advance of what the government is planning, including but not limited to the invasion of Ukraine and interference in foreign elections. Outrageous and unlikely propaganda narratives have a tendency to become a reality, months and years later. These narratives are replete with warnings of what the Kremlin would like to do in the future— ignoring them might prove very costly in the long run.” —Admiral James Stavridis, 16th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and author most recently of 2054 a novel of geopolitics and artificial intelligence
“Few in the West have ever experienced the bizarre and dehumanizing propaganda that now dominates all Russian media. Julia Davis, however, has kept a steady eye on this electronic madness and this book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the darkness that has overtaken Russia.” —Tom Nichols, Professor Emeritus, Naval War College
Foreword Russian propaganda is in the shadow of America. Whereas the America only covers Russia when there is something to cover, and sometimes not even then, Russian propaganda television starts every night from the premise that whatever has happened is America’s doing. This does not reflect reality—or a typical American’s experience of reality. It does reflect the problem that Russian propaganda is meant to solve. Since Vladimir Putin is the boss of bosses in an oligarchical regime where domestic policy is impossible, the propagandists must direct attention to the world beyond Russia in a way that makes Russia’s leadership seem righteous. Russian propagandists do this in the confidence that no one beyond Russia is watching, but Julia Davis has been. From this collection of her articles, we can understand the propagandists’ job description, but also the tensions they feel when the outside world causes them problems. Their basic posture is that America is in a constant war with the Russian Federation. Because Russia cannot fight and cannot win any actual war of that description, the propagandists are most comfortable when America is turned against itself. They talk almost never about Russian domestic politics, but obsess over every piece of evidence of American domestic weakness. Donald Trump is their favorite weapon against America. Trump is described as a friend and ally, “our Trumpushka” and “Donald Fredovych”. Out of office, he is described as Russia’s great hope. He is “sorely missed”; Russia is “ready to elect you again”. Russia’s propagandists had no trouble predicting that Trump would try a coup when he lost in 2020, because that is a familiar sort of behavior to them. They rejoiced when he did, because they thought that this could lead to a civil war in the United States. Their coverage of Trump’s coup attempt was at first highly positive. When it failed, a very awkward pivot was made to the position that it had all been some sort of provocation by the Democrats. One of the things that Russian propagandists expect not to be noticed, but which is brought home here, is that they believe that 13
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Trump is an idiot. Of course, it’s hard to see, from their perspective, how they can believe anything else (except, perhaps, that he is a traitor, as also sometimes hinted). In their public worldview, destroying the United States is the main aim, and here is an American who follows their talking points. The same goes for Tucker Carlson. He is celebrated on Russian television, of course, and his clips replayed. But Russian propagandists naturally think anyone beyond Russia who is on their side must not be very bright, and they cannot quite stop themselves from saying so. It is the one point on which they are completely sincere. It is important to note, and Julia Davis gives us all the details, the hypocrisy of the anti-American pose. A leading Russian propagandist sent his girlfriend to America to give birth so that his child would have US citizenship. Propagandists are clearly personally hurt by sanctions that separate them from their property in the European Union or make it harder for them to travel abroad. They send their children to study and work in the West, they don’t have any real animus towards the West. This is, I think, one more reason why they can’t resist thinking of Americans on their side as idiots. When Putin ordered a full-scale war on Ukraine, the propagandists suddenly had a problem. Before the attack, as we are reminded in this book, there was great confidence among Russian propagandists that Ukraine would fall to Russia in “two days” or even “ten minutes.” But when Russia actually did undertake a fullscale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it set off a chain of events that the propagandists found hard to master. For one thing, they had been cut out of the loop. The invasion was meant to be its own propaganda, a “special military operation” that overthrew the Ukrainian government in three days, followed by a victory parade and a warm welcome by the Ukrainian masses. This did not happen, and was based upon a worldview (Putin’s) that was both obviously wrong and impossible to criticize. Russian propagandists switched immediately to the comfortable idea that the war was really against America, and that America had initiated. Rereading Julia Davis’s essays, I was struck by how quickly this happened—within a few days.
FOREWORD
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The Ukrainians themselves had to be dehumanized. This was a direct consequence of the senselessness of the war. Russians had to be made to feel that they were somehow superior, and that war had some kind of logic. The premise of the war, as Putin had made clear, was that there was not really a Ukrainian state or nation; this was all a conspiracy, and would collapse immediately. If, as it emerged, more Ukrainians defended themselves than expected, that did not mean that Ukraine was real; it just meant that logic of the special military operation, killing the elites, had to be extended ever further downward into the population. As Julia Davis shows, Russian propagandists use openly genocidal language over and over again, urging the extermination of vermin, worms, demons, zombies, etc. Putin’s grotesque “denazification” framing of the war is genocidal. If all Ukrainians are defined as Nazis by nature, then it is right to kill them all. The “Nazi” claim has never had anything to do with political reality (the actual fascists, the ones in Russia, are calling for genocide), and always had everything to do with justifying that murderous project. After the Hamas attack on Israel, there was a split in the Russian media elite between Russia’s non-Nazi fascists and the Nazi ones. This too is chronicled here. When reading Julia Davis’s essays carefully, it becomes clear that America is not just needed as a propaganda target, but as a de facto ally, called in by the propagandists to correct the (unmentionable) mistakes made by their own (supposedly infallible) dictator. Russia needs Trump because it cannot manage on its own. Trump allows them to claim that everything is America’s fault and that this is confirmed by America's own leadership. And then everything can go on in Russia as before. Russia needs America to bail it out of its war with Ukraine. When you read Julia Davis’s summaries of Russian propaganda day after day, it is abundantly clear that the propagandists themselves (despite all of the bluster) are aware that the war did not go according to plan, and indeed is going very badly. Again and again they are put in impossible positions: when Ukraine takes territory; when Russia fails to take territory; when more Russians have to be mobilized; when Yevgeny Prigozhin tries a coup. They cannot
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criticize Putin, and they know that Putin cannot win unaided: and so they root for his allies abroad. This itself is worth emphasizing, at a time when many Europeans and Americans seem to be asking how Ukraine can win. The answer is simple. Ukraine can win if Europeans and Americans believe it can, and continue to help. Ironically, that emerges quite clearly from these pages. Russia’s propagandists know this. They are relying entirely on their own domain, that of discourse. The war is not going well for Russia on the actual battlefield. The Europeans and the Americans are bearing essentially no costs. But if they can somehow decide that they are weary, Russia can win. Russia can’t win its own war, is propagandists’ evident conclusion, but America can win Russia’s war for it. America is of course not all-powerful, as the Russian propagandists claim to believe, but on this point they are right. Their discussions of Ukraine, like their discussions of Russia and everything else, focus entirely on what is happening inside the United States. The regime they serve, and the senseless and genocidal war it began, can be bought some time, if and only if the United States fails to support Ukraine. And so the heroes of Russia’s war, in Russia’s own propaganda, become the Americans who support it. Timothy D. Snyder Yale University, New Haven, CT
Preface This abbreviated anthology of articles illuminates a fascinating time in modern Russian history, through the lens of analysis of Moscow’s propaganda tactics. The Kremlin’s cadre of state-controlled propagandists is tasked with laying the groundwork for the actions planned by the regime of Vladimir Putin and Russian state-controlled media provides crucial clues about sinister goals that the government is planning to pursue: from election interference to invasions, with the end goal of a new world order—with Russia at the helm. This journey starts with a pre-invasion assumption that the West is incapable of a strong stance or international unity in opposing Russian aggression against the neighboring countries. Putin’s propagandists cheer for war against Ukraine, predicting it would be quick and victorious—and the response from the US and allies would be limited to some mild sanctions, à la Crimea. Misreading the ability of the West to unite against Russian aggression and miscalculating Russia’s capabilities in confronting determined Ukrainians, Russia ended up in a quagmire of its own creation. Putin’s decorated propagandists find themselves facing unpleasant consequences—with the possibility of future scrutiny and potential prosecutions for their proactive incitement of genocide. They unravel, along with the Kremlin, having to tell multiple conflicting stories, condemn the same players they used to lionize and facing the possibility of a civil war in Russia—and not in Western countries, as they’ve so frequently predicted and openly wished for. Backed into the corner, they resort to nuclear threats and demand even more blood from Ukraine, whose only crime is its desire for democracy and freedom. Russian propaganda is a weapon of a murderous regime in its pursuit of global domination. Understanding it is a key to analyzing the aspirations of the Kremlin and the methods it uses with the goal of controlling the minds of domestic and international populations.
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In a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Modern history is unfolding before our eyes. Look through the window of the state media’s house of mirrors to decipher what Putin’s Russia would like to do—not only to Ukraine, but to the entire world, if the West allows the Kremlin to get away with it.
Russians Praise Trump, Taunt Zelensky, as Ukraine Signs On to Peace-Plan Proposal “Trump let Zelensky down. Three times he told him: ‘Go meet with Putin,’” gloated one prominent Russian TV host. Originally published by The Daily Beast on October 03, 2019 Existential dread washed over the face of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, as he sat next to the American president during their joint press conference on the sidelines of the U.N. Donald Trump, as the face of Ukraine’s most powerful ally in its struggle against Russian aggression, was telling him: “I really hope you and President Putin get together and can solve your problem.” Having lost more than 13,000 people in an ongoing conflict with its belligerent neighbor, Ukraine was now being told to make a deal with the aggressor, because—according to President Trump—“President Putin would like to do something.” During the same conference, Zelensky pleaded with Trump for help with returning the territories occupied and annexed by Russia, and, egged on by Trump—and contrary to the facts—complained that Europe wasn’t doing as much as the United States to help Ukraine. In reality, European institutions spent nearly double the amount supplied by the United States: $425.2 million in 20162017, as compared to $204.4 million spent by the U.S. While that disclosure infuriated Ukraine’s European allies, Trump in the now infamous July 25 phone call with Zelensky blamed Ukraine’s troubles on the Obama administration, dismissively concluding “it’s just one of those things” and directing Zelensky to ask for more help from Europe. Since the call’s release, Ukrainians have nicknamed their president “Monica Zelensky,” as a jab referring to his part in the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Trump. 19
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Backed into the corner and seeming to stand alone there, Zelensky made a step toward a deal with Putin by officially signing up Ukraine to the Steinmeier Formula. The agreement provides the pathway to a summit that would bring Zelensky face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Russia demanded written codification of the Steinmeier Formula by Ukraine as a key precondition to the next Normandy summit. It interprets the clauses of the Minsk “accords” (agreements between the Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists) in line with Russia’s preferences and therefore enjoys the Kremlin’s seal of approval. The formula further calls for elections to be conducted under the supervision of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the territories held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It was signed on October 1 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the separatist pseudo-republics of Luhansk and Donetsk (LPR and DPR), and the OSCE in Minsk. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the signing of the Steinmeier Formula agreement as a “positive” development. Senator Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, who is under U.S. sanctions for “worldwide malign activity,” said the signing represents “without a doubt, a victory for common sense and an overall success.” In stark contrast to Russia’s jubilation, hundreds of Ukrainians in Kyiv have protested, demanding “no capitulation” to the Kremlin and its proxies. The most controversial aspect of the Steinmeier Formula is that it provides for local elections to take place in the occupied parts of Ukraine before Kyiv has control of the border and prior to the withdrawal of the Russian-backed forces. This condition doesn’t seem to match up with Zelensky’s understanding of the agreement. After signing on to the Steinmeier Formula, the Ukrainian president declared during a news conference that the elections would not be held “under the barrel of a gun” and would take place only when no troops remain in the separatist-held areas.
RUSSIANS PRAISE TRUMP, TAUNT ZELENSKY
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“What Ukraine was so afraid of has happened… Zelensky doesn’t understand what he signed,” concluded Vladimir Solovyov, the host of the nightly The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov on Russian state television. The heads of Russia-backed separatist pseudo-republics in eastern Ukraine openly proclaimed in a public statement that “the Kyiv authorities won’t get any control over the border” and vowed that LPR and DPR will make decisions “about integration with Russia” of their own accord. “Forget about controlling the border, once and for all,” exclaimed political scientist Sergey Kurginyan, appearing on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov. During a panel discussion at the Russian Energy Week forum, Putin said that Zelensky “will have to decide how the relations between Ukraine and Donbas will develop,” pointedly referring to Ukraine’s own region as a separate geopolitical entity. Putin opined that Ukraine “did much better when it was a part of the Soviet Union, along with Russia.” Appearing on Russia’s state television program 60 Minutes, Oleg Nilov, member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, asserted that Ukraine was “forced to sign” the Steinmeier Formula—and proceeded to threaten the country with “the Israeli formula” of taking all the land Russia wants, if Kyiv reneges on the deal. “Come back to the Soviet Union,” urged Karen Shakhnazarov, CEO of Mosfilm Studio, appearing on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov. The talk-show host Solovyov concurred and reminded the guests that the USSR was originally formed by a treaty that united the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Transcaucasian republics. “Trump let Zelensky down. Three times he told him: ‘Go meet with Putin,’” said Olga Skabeeva, the host of 60 Minutes. During the same program, Nikolai Platoshkin, head of the International Relations Department at Moscow University for the Humanities, predicted that once all the “formulas” have been exhausted, LPR and DPR will ultimately become a part of the Russian Federation. Skabeeva concurred: “The sooner the better.” She surmised: “After his ‘triumphant’ meeting with the American president, Zelensky had no choice but to lie back and enjoy it… We know what happened in the United States. You have nowhere left to go.”
Russia’s State TV Calls Trump Their ‘Agent’ Russian commentators note, rightly, that “sooner or later, the Democrats will come back into power,” and they’re already joking about offering Trump asylum. Originally published by The Daily Beast on December 16, 2019 Sometimes a picture doesn’t have to be worth a thousand words. Just a few will do. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov returned home from his visit with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, Russian state media were gloating over the spectacle. TV channel Rossiya 1 aired a segment entitled “Puppet Master and ‘Agent’—How to Understand Lavrov’s Meeting With Trump.” Vesti Nedeli, a Sunday news show on the same network, pointed out that it was Trump, personally, who asked Lavrov to pose standing near as Trump sat at his desk. It’s almost the literal image of a power behind the throne. And in the meantime, much to Russia’s satisfaction, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is still waiting for that critical White House meeting with the American president: the famous “quid pro quo” for Zelensky announcing an investigation that would smear Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Zelensky hasn’t done that, and as of now, no meeting has been set. Russian state television still views the impending impeachment as a bump in the road that won’t lead to Trump’s removal from office. But President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda brigades enjoy watching the heightened divisions in the United States, and how it hurts relations between the U.S. and Ukraine. They’ve also added a cynical new a narrative filled with half-joking ironies as they look at the American president’s bleak prospects when he does leave office.
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Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, Mikhail Gusman, first deputy director general of ITAR-TASS, Russia’s oldest and largest news agency, predicted: “Sooner or later, the Democrats will come back into power. The next term or the term after that, it doesn’t matter... I have an even more unpleasant forecast for Trump. After the White House, he will face a very unhappy period.” The host, Vladimir Solovyov, smugly asked: “Should we get another apartment in Rostov ready?” Solovyov’s allusion was to the situation of Viktor Yanukovych, former president of Ukraine, who was forced to flee to Russia in 2014 and settled in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Such parallels between Yanukovych and Trump are being drawn not only because of their common association with Paul Manafort, adviser to the first, campaign chairman for the second, but also because Russian experts and politicians consider both of them to be openly pro-Kremlin. Tightly controlled Russian state-television programs constantly reiterate that Trump doesn’t care about Ukraine and gave Putin no reasons to even contemplate concessions in the run-up to the recent Normandy Four summit in Paris. State-television news shows use every opportunity to demoralize the Ukrainians with a set of talking points based on the U.S. president’s distaste for their beleaguered country. The host of Who’s Against on Rossiya-1, Dmitry Kulikov, along with pro-Kremlin guests, took repeated jabs at the Ukrainian panelist, boasting about the meeting between Trump and Lavrov. “There are no disagreements or contradictions between Trump and Russia,” argued Valery Korovin, director of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, appearing on the state-television channel Rossiya-24. Korovin insisted that the Democrats in Congress are the main antagonists in the relationship between Russia and the United States. Dmitry Kiselyov, the host of the Sunday news show Vesti Nedeli, accused the Democrats of joining forces with Hollywood, carrying out various conspiracies in order to undermine Trump’s popularity. Reporting for Vesti Nedeli from Washington, Mikhail
RUSSIA’S STATE TV CALLS TRUMP THEIR ‘AGENT’
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Antonov used the term “the Cold War,” a fraught rhetorical twist to describe the clash between Trump and the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, Mikhail Gusman noted: “The scariest part of our relationship with America is that the level of trust between our countries, our governments, our political powers, is precisely at zero.” “But not between the presidents,” chimed in the host. Rudy Giuliani, acting as the president’s personal attorney and determined to divert attention from Trump’s impeachment to former Vice President Biden’s alleged corruption, recently embarked on an “evidence-gathering” trip to Ukraine. Shortly after Giuliani’s return to the United States, Russian state television started airing video clips of his OAN (One America News Network) “documentary.” It purports to prove Kyiv’s meddling in U.S. elections and accuses former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch of “lying under oath in Congress to whitewash [Joe] Biden’s corruption.” Giuliani’s efforts on behalf of President Trump are bound to pay propaganda dividends for the Kremlin. Putin has expressed undisguised delight with the crusade led by Trump and Giuliani to whitewash Moscow’s interference in the U.S. elections and pin the blame on Kyiv. Last month, the Russian president smugly remarked “Thank God no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore. Now they’re accusing Ukraine.” Rossiya-1 reporter Valentin Bogdanov surmised that by now the majority of American Republicans believe that Ukraine interfered in the U.S. elections, with the show airing various clips from Fox News. The absurdity of such claims spawned by the Russian security services puts the hypocrisy of the Republicans on full display. The Kremlin, having argued for years that democracy is a sham and the West is devoid of morals and principles, can now showcase the GOP as its “Exhibit A.” Appearing on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov in October, political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev argued that Trump has to destroy the Republican Party in order to secure his own long-term
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IN THEIR OWN WORDS
survival. The impeachment proceedings seemed to expedite the process, with the GOP’s self-immolation for the sake of its “Dear Leader.” Prompted by the head-spinning swerve of the Republicans, Tucker Carlson of Fox News even argued that, in the Ukrainian conflict, the U.S. should be taking the side of Russia. Kremlin-controlled Russian state media doesn’t suffer from a similar lack of clarity. Appearing on Solovyov’s show, Semyon Bagdasarov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, exclaimed: “The United States is the enemy. It is our enemy. It is a hostile state that aims to destroy our country... We are at war!”
Did Russian Prime Minister Medvedev Drop a Grim Hint About Putin’s Latest Power Grab? Reading from Chekhov’s “A Night in the Cemetery” on national television Tuesday, Dmitry Medvedev foreshadowed the upheaval to come with his government's resignation on Wednesday. Originally published by The Daily Beast on January 16, 2020 At a celebration of the Russian Orthodox New Year on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev chose a grim message, the sarcasm of which left his audience on edge. But then, Medvedev probably knew what Wednesday would bring—the resignation of his entire government—and the audience did not. On national television, the prime minister read at length from Anton Chekhov’s story "A Night in the Cemetery," which suggests with ironic wit that celebrating the coming of the New Year is a foolish pursuit, unworthy of a properly functioning mind, since “every coming year is as bad as the previous one,” and the newest year is bound to be even worse. Instead of celebrating the New Year, Chekhov wrote—and Medvedev read—one should suffer, cry and attempt suicide. Every new year brings you closer to death, makes you poorer, your bald spots larger and your wife older, he said. Medvedev’s sour greetings brought on some awkward laughs and sparse applause from confused Russian bureaucrats in the studio audience, most of whom remained stone-faced. The prime minister seemed nervous and almost dropped his papers at the end of the speech. Then Wednesday dawned, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in his annual state of the nation address proposed a constitutional overhaul. It supposedly is designed to boost the powers of parliament and the cabinet, but more likely is intended to give 27
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Putin, 67, a firm grip on the country for many more years, even decades, to come. A few hours later, Medvedev submitted his resignation, and his entire cabinet submitted theirs as well. And while some of them may stay on, Medvedev, who once served a term as Putin's placeholder president, will move to a previously nonexistent post. Putin offered the prime minister slot to Mikhail Mishustin, the head of the Russian Tax Service, who has been described as “the taxman of the future,” digitally acquiring receipts of every transaction in Russia within 90 seconds. It's unclear whether Mishustin will be a placeholder technocrat or assume other responsibilities currently known only to Putin. But in his annual address, Putin articulated the need to identify any persons with current or former double citizenships and foreign holdings, eliminating them from government service. Mishustin might become instrumental in such a reshuffling of Russia’s power elites, who are perceived to be unpatriotic by maintaining residences or bank accounts abroad. The added pressure will also give Putin further leverage over them. In the past, Putin and Medvedev have choreographed moves that allowed Putin to remain in charge under different titles, swapping places to circumvent term limits. This time around, Medvedev will assume a newly created position as the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council and all current ministers will remain in an acting capacity until a new government is appointed. Meanwhile, the leader of Chechnya in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, Ramzan Kadyrov has declared himself to be “temporarily incapacitated,” relegating his duties to the current prime minister of Chechnya, Muslim Khuchiyev. Putin’s sweeping changes are widely interpreted as designed to weaken his successor, reshaping Russia’s power structure in order to create additional opportunities for Putin's continued control over the government, even after the conclusion of his fourth presidential term in 2024. Putin proposed amending the Russian constitution to expand the powers of the legislative branch and investing additional
DID MEDVEDEV DROP A HINT?
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powers in the State Council, leading to speculation Putin is contemplating his future return at the helm of a newly empowered Parliament, after the expiration of his current presidential term. Commentary on the Russian president’s likely intention to carve out a new position for himself has been skillfully avoided by the Russian state media. Instead, Kremlin-controlled news outlets chose to focus on promised subsidies for families with young children, designed to address Russia’s demographic crisis by boosting the birth rate, and the general claim that Putin has, as it were, made Russia great again. On the Russian state television show, The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, the host proclaimed, “The greatness of the country is indisputably tied to the name of Putin.” Solovyov argued that the Russian president “restored respect” towards their country globally. His take was echoed by the State Duma Deputy Chair Irina Yarovaya, who pontificated that Putin, having achieved his foreign policy and national security objectives, could now move on to his domestic agenda. Yarovaya said, “We remember statements by [U.S. President Barack Obama] in 2014—very recently—that Russia is a regional power of minor importance. We remember all of that. We remember how the sanctions started. We remember how we weren’t invited to the G8. And today there is a line of world leaders waiting just to talk to our president over the phone…” The sanctions started and Russia was disinvited after it seized and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, then incited and abetted a separatist war in Ukraine's east. They were intensified after Russia's flagrant interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Russian state media also highlight Putin’s promises of socioeconomic largesse and his prediction that “Russia's economy will grow faster than the global average in 2021.” During the last decade, the Russian leader has promised in vain that Russia will become the world’s fifth largest economy by 2024. It is currently ranked as the 11th largest economy in the world, with a smaller GDP than that of California.
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IN THEIR OWN WORDS
President Putin’s current growth prediction is much more modest. It’s still not realistic, but such promises had to be made as Russia’s declining standards of living have led to political unrest and mass protests. Without providing any direct answers as to his own plans, the Russian leader—who has now been in power for 20 years—created new venues for his continued reign in yet-to-be-revealed future capacities. Amid all the uncertainties, maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that Medvedev was reading Chekhov’s story about a blind drunk civil servant who stumbles out of a New Year’s celebration only to get lost in a graveyard—and then discovers in the morning he was somewhere else entirely.
This Is the Real Goal of Putin’s Propaganda Machine The Kremlin’s minions may seem to push Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard—and Trump. But the bigger goal is to destroy faith in the whole electoral system. Originally published by The Daily Beast on March 10, 2020 In Russia and abroad, the Kremlin’s state media are waging infowarfare designed to undermine former Vice President Joe Biden while boosting Senator Bernie Sanders—and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. But Donald Trump is the intended beneficiary of the Kremlin campaign, and the ultimate goal is not to elect Sanders, much less Gabbard, despite militant messaging on their behalf. It’s to discredit the democratic process as a whole. And that’s where the English-language Russian state media take the lead. For example, RT (formerly Russia Today) praised Gabbard (DHI) for staying in the race—while demeaning Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for sticking around in spite of low ratings—and described the whole electoral process as “a rigged game.” One of RT’s offshoots, In The Now, claimed: “This nomination is getting stolen from Sanders, we are witnessing a robbery… Everything has already been done to make sure Sanders doesn’t have enough delegates.” Describing all of the presidential candidates—except for Sanders—as “puppets,” and the electoral process as the “smoke and mirrors show,” In The Now host Anissa Naouai mocked Biden, razed Mike Bloomberg, blamed Warren for staying in the race too long to “keep delegates from Sanders… in a coordinated attempt to keep Sanders out.” Naouai also proceeded to admit that she voted for Bernie Sanders, even though she doesn’t think that he can win, essentially encouraging other American voters to do the same.
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